ENGLAND and Wales should learn from Scotland and give police greater powers to intervene when people are suffering mental health crises at home or in another private property.

That is one of three policy improvement proposals from a serving police officer who faces the problems caused by weak mental health legislation on a daily basis.

The officer, who writes a blog under the name Nathan Constable and whose real identity he wants to keep secret, said current practices, in which people are locked up for the "crime" of being ill, are "almost medieval".

He said he and colleagues are too often asked to "tend to the sick like nurses in blue" when they have neither the proper training, nor the powers nor the resources.

He also wants better training in mental health matters for police officers, or a "first aid" for mental health, as he puts it.

And were he able to David Cameron directly, he would advise upping the number of beds and other resources available for emergency mental health NHS teams outside of working hours.

Police cells are too regularly being used as a "place of safety" for innocent people with mental health problems, he says.

Nathan has been working on the front line for almost 20 years and the articles he posts on his blog are damning indictments of disjointed thinking and passing-the-buck attitudes among the various authorities working in the emergency mental health field.

He says police time is wasted by the likes of social workers routinely advising carers to dial 999 when other avenues have not even been explored.

And when police are called to genuine emergencies, he says, they often lack the powers to make a difference.

Under the existing mental health legislation in England and Wales, police have two main investigating powers to intervene.

Section 136 of the Mental Health Act allows officers to "detain" as oppose to arrest--someone found in a public place who appears to need immediate care.

In contrast, Section 135 allows police to enter a private place but only after a warrant has been issued by a magistrate and only then to assess whether the person needs for further assessment or treatment.

Because so many of the calls they receive are linked to private homes, police are therefore unable to act quickly.

England and Wales need to leave behind their medieval policies and follow Scotland's lead

Because of this chronic lack of provision, people are located in police cells for the "crime" of being ill. The practice is almost medieval

Police officer Nathan Constable

He cites the cases of people threatening suicide in their own homes.

Police can force entry but they don¹t have the power to actually detain them to protect their life.